


do re mi

by rightofspring



Category: NU'EST, Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Inspired by Clueless, M/M, Romance, Underage Drinking, but nothing will happen do not sexualize my children pls, kind of humor but also not because i'm not funny, this ship is sinking but i will go down with it, title is from blackbear's song, yes daehwi is done with dongho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-11-27
Packaged: 2019-01-26 13:55:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12558852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rightofspring/pseuds/rightofspring
Summary: Daehwi is clueless, Dongho is his annoying new stepbrother and the whole world just seems to be against them.





	1. Prologue

Daehwi wakes up on a Friday morning with a pounding headache and his mouth dry from dehydration, the black-haired boy gasps as he opens his eyes, and clenches his fists around the sheets beneath him; as if he has just woken up from a nightmare, Daehwi is sweating and panting, listening to his own heart beating loudly against his chest as he tries his best to calm down.

1… 2… 3… Daehwi counts until 10 and lets out a sigh, he feels the soft material of the sheets against the palms of his hands, and lets his eyes wonder lazily around his bedroom. The digital clock next to him tells him it’s already past 10 in the morning, and although Daehwi is surprised about the fact he’s woken up so late, he doesn’t move from the bed, doesn’t even flinch when an unknown alarm goes off from a phone lying in the nightstand next to him, and only mutters the wrong lyrics to the a song he doesn’t know the name of under his breath, but he shuts up almost immediately – his eyelids are still so heavy from the lack of sleep last night, that he doesn’t notice when his mind starts drifting away to another place… until it finally hits him.

The smell of burnt somethings in what Daehwi supposes (and hopes) it’s the kitchen is what sets him off first, he then frowns as he thinks of the fact that it is _Friday_ and his father hasn’t dragged his ass all the way to school yet, and it confuses him. The black-haired boy blinks twice, he shifts under the sheets so that he’s staring up into the ceiling and furrows his eyebrows as he thinks deeply.

The sheets… the digital clock… the alarm… the phone… the ceiling he’s staring at right now for God’s sake! None of those things belonged to Daehwi, and unless his father had decided to redecorate his bedroom while he was asleep, this meant this wasn’t his room either.

Daehwi springs from the bed and gasps loudly, the boy looks around, in the hopes of finding something familiar… something that reminds him of someone he knows or something he did last night, but nothing comes to mind and, instead, wild thoughts start appearing on his head. What if he had been kidnapped by someone last night and his father had given up on finding him already? What if he…?

‘’Oh, you’re finally awake!’’

A deep voice manages to startle Daehwi, who lets out a small whimper and squeezes his eyes shut to avoid seeing the owner of the unknown voice. The black-haired boy hears a low chuckle, and then the sound of glass against something (the nightstand next to him, Daehwi guesses, and flinches just thinking about the stranger being so close to him right now).

‘’I figured you’d be hungover, so I brought you some pills,’’ The stranger mumbles, and Daehwi can sense a hint of confusion on his voice, but he decides not to care about it; he could be trying to fool him into thinking that he’s a nice guy and he’s concerned about him! So the black-haired boy ignores him, and pretends he’s not even in the same room as him.

… Maybe… if he didn’t move the stranger would leave him alone…? Daehwi furrows his eyebrows, and only closes his eyes tighter.

‘’I can tell you’re not asleep,’’ The voice says mockingly, which causes Daehwi to flush bright red – the boy knows he looks ridiculous at the moment, and by the voice of the stranger he acknowledges that there’s a huge probability that the owner of the voice isn’t a lot older than Daehwi: his voice is deep, yes – at least deeper than Daehwi’s, but it definitely doesn’t sound like one of an adult…

Daehwi frowns, eyes still closed as he imagines how the other person looked like in his head. He’d be lying to himself if he said that he isn’t intrigued to know what the stranger’s appearance was like: he could imagine a 20-something year old dude with thick glasses and chubby cheeks, maybe with some stubble; and he had been nice enough to let him and Seonho stay the night at his place, or maybe it is that guy who had given them 2 shots of tequila before running into the dance floor when Born This Way started playing on the speakers, though it had been dark in the living room, Daehwi had been able to appreciate the elder’s features: an incredibly good-looking face, short of height and as skinny as Seonho.

Seonho… Yoo Seonho!

And why had Daehwi remembered his friend just now? They had gone out together last night (more like Seonho had dragged the older boy to another party) so there’s a huge probability that Seonho is somewhere near him, maybe he was in the kitchen, or in another room with Hwang Minhyun.

Maybe the guy in front of him was Hwang Minhyun?

Hwang Minhyun was kind, maybe way too kind for Daehwi’s liking, but he was really nice to Seonho and him and Daehwi appreciated that – the older guy hadn’t yelled at Seonho when he arrived at Yoon Jisung’s birthday party uninvited, and hadn’t complained _that much_ through the night, even though Seonho had stuck to him like glue. Actually, Minhyun kept them company all night and worried about them constantly, so he was definitely nice, nicer than most people when they met Seonho, anyways.

And if Hwang Minhyun had been nice enough to drink all the cups Seonho had to drink because he lost at beer pong, it meant he was nice enough to let them stay at his place… right?

Or maybe it really is a random, 20-something year old dude with glasses and stubble, who had felt sorry for the 2 drunken underage boys and let them stay the night.

Daehwi decides to open one of his eyes once he’s a little more confident that he’s not going to get murdered today, but he’s still hesitant; eyebrows raised as he opens the other one slowly, lips set into a thin line when he decides to stare at the stranger in front of him; and hell, Daehwi isn’t really sure about what he was expecting (he was hoping for Hwang Minhyun, if he was being honest, and now he’s just disappointed) but he was definitely not expecting… well… _this_.  

The black-haired boy gulps down; he blinks twice as he looks into the stranger’s dark eyes, he observes his tilted head and his furrowed, thick eyebrows – the grimace on his mouth and the veins on his arms, which are crossed against his chest as he seems to start to lose his patience.  On the contrary of his slightly more up-beat voice, the stranger’s face revealed nothing but annoyance and frustration; Daehwi figures he’s pissed off because of him and it manages to scare the hell out of the younger boy.

The fact that he’s never seen the stranger’s face before also makes it nerve-wracking, because if he, at least, remembered his face from the party last night it would be different – maybe he’d laugh about what happened and awkwardly leave the room without saying anything else, but as to now, Daehwi is clueless as to what to do. Should he say something? Maybe introduce himself? Say thank you? Should he run away?

‘’I… tried to make breakfast but Aron wasn’t home and… I ended up burning the whole thing but…’’ The stranger interrupts Daehwi’s thoughts, and it’s the first time the boy notices the hesitance on his voice; he’s probably aware of Daehwi’s confusion at the moment, but his words only manage to confuse him further more because, who the hell was Aron?! The stranger takes a glass of water from the nightstand next to them and hands it to Daehwi, who’s shaking, ‘’Here, I bet you’re thirsty.’’

Daehwi raises an eyebrow when he notices a tattoo peeking through one of his sleeves, and while he can’t figure out what the tattoo is, the mere fact of him having one concerns Daehwi; normally he wouldn’t care, but if he’s not wrong, having a tattoo in Korea is not that well seen, people immediately think of people with tattoos as thugs, and… that’s exactly what Daehwi thinks right now of the stranger – with his slicked back hair and twisted smirk and…

The black-haired boy remembers the stranger still has his arm stretched towards him, so he nods awkwardly, he tries giving him a small smile but he fails in the process, and with his hands still trembling Daehwi takes the glass of water to his mouth.

‘’It was really your first time, huh.’’

Daehwi not only chokes on the water when he hears the stranger’s words, but he also drops the drink into the bed, his jeans are now extremely wet and  he’s coughing violently; eyes tearing up as he repeats those words over and over again in his head.

His first time.

Daehwi’s first time.

‘’Are you okay?’’ The stranger asks, ‘’Ah, I knew you were too young to be doing these things,’’ He mutters under his breath, head shaking disapprovingly as he picks the glass of water from the bed, only to put it back on the nightstand.

Daehwi frowns, if he was too young why had the stranger done it anyway?

‘’God, you were really loud last night, what happened to you?’’

The younger boy chokes on the air this time, he coughs loudly, and it seems like the stranger finally has caught on what’s going on, because he frowns almost immediately; he looks concerned but it only manages to make Daehwi feel more awkward than he already was.

‘’Are you really okay?’’  The stranger asks again, eyebrows furrowed in apparent concern, ‘’Do you want me to call someone to pick you up or…?’’

‘’No!’’ Daehwi exclaims; eyes widened in surprise. Was the boy crazy?! He knows he must’ve talked way too quickly, because the stranger seems taken aback – amused, too, and then he chuckles.

Daehwi only blushes once again.

‘’Alright…’’ The stranger mumbles, ‘’Oh, by the way… your shirt is still on the washing machine, so I brought this for now.’’

A shirt. The stranger was handing Daehwi a shirt. The boy blinks twice in confusion, and then he stares down to his chest… and of course he is shirtless! Daehwi hides his face from the older boy, eyes glued on the sheets as he takes with his hands the shirt the stranger was offering to him; it takes him less than one second to put it on, and he breathes out in relief as he feels the cotton shirt against his shoulders. Daehwi is able to smell the cologne the older used, and when a sense of déjá-vu hits him, he flushes in embarrassment. Why did the smell result so familiar to him just now?

The stranger laughs softly, and Daehwi turns his head almost immediately to look at him. The man’s smiling face wasn’t half as bad as his angry face, but still, it creeps Daehwi out, it makes him wonder how the hell they even met and how… Daehwi had ended up there, in his bed. Daehwi wonders if he had been too drunk to realize the stranger wasn’t his type, at least not enough to do what he had done with him last night. It takes a couple of minutes for Daehwi to realize that the stranger had been actually laughing at him, so he frowns, touches his face self-consciously and looks down at himself to see if there was anything wrong with him, but it’s only when the neck of the shirt he was given by the older slips off from his shoulder that he realizes what the man was actually laughing about; the shirt most likely looked huge on Daehwi, while he was pretty sure it fit perfectly on the stranger, he thinks – guesses, staring at the man’s shoulders with not a lot of subtlety.

Daehwi fixes the stranger’s shirt awkwardly, eyeing the older boy in front of him as if trying to get his approval, but his arms are once again crossed against his chest, and a frown sits in his face unchangingly.

‘’Look, man, I’m not trying to throw you out or anything, but a friend is coming over soon and… you know…’’

‘’Oh.’’

The stranger looks at Daehwi with his eyebrows raised, probably because it’s the first time the younger has (kind of) said anything to him in the whole day; he stares at him expectantly, as if Daehwi were to say anything else, when in fact, the younger had let out the word without even noticing.

‘’I mean… but your shirt…’’

Daehwi couldn’t care less about the stranger’s shirt, if he was being honest – but he wanted to know more about the older; hell, he didn’t even know his name, let alone how he was. He, oddly wanted to know a little bit about him before leaving, and most importantly: about last night. Daehwi wanted to ask him about yesterday and how they’d ended up there and, where was Seonho?

The chances of getting to know the answers of these questions seem to go out of the window when the stranger shakes his head, small smile on his face as he brushes him off.

‘’Don’t worry about that, kid,’’ He says, ‘’You can keep it. But if you want to come back for yours, it’s okay, I’m pretty sure Aron won’t mind having you here again.’’

Kid? Daehwi barely focuses on him after hearing that word; the younger almost feels offended – and, who the hell was this Aron person the stranger had been talking so much about?! Daehwi huffs, and nods with his head nonchalantly – hell, how was he supposed to pretend he didn’t care about the whole ordeal and the walk of shame he had to do right now?

Daehwi decides to take another glance at the stranger, who seems to get more impatient as the seconds went by, and frowns.

‘’Do you want some pants too?’’

Was he being kind or sarcastic? The younger boy rolls his eyes; he stands up from the warm and comfortable bed he was lying in and breathes out, perfectly aware of the stranger’s eyes on him.

Rude, he thinks.

Daehwi bows at him, before exiting the room without saying anything else and walking away.

And God, Daehwi never imagined he’d had to do the walk of shame, let alone for half an hour and his jeans uncomfortably wet around his thighs.

(♡˙︶˙♡)

Daehwi comes home to the surprise of dozens of boxes and bags scattered around the living room. Unknown people surround his apartment; they’re taking down family pictures and packing up sofas and though it confuses the boy for a moment, it doesn’t take him a lot of time to realize why his father hadn’t dragged his ass all the way to school today; realizes what he should’ve been doing a few hours ago instead of sharing awkward looks with a stranger.

The boy curses under his breath, but he’s able to put a strain smile on his face when he sees his father approaching him, the old man messes up his hair jokingly, and shakes his head in disapproval.

‘’Where’ve you been, kid?’’ His father asks, he doesn’t sound genuinely angry at him, but of course he’s concerned, ‘’We’re supposed to finish packing in a few hours, Daehwi, so hurry up with your things.’’

Daehwi ignores his words, he frowns and he huffs – throwing a tantrum, ‘’Dad, I’m not a little kid anymore!’’

His father grins, ‘’Your face right now isn’t helping you a lot, son.’’ He says in a joking manner, but it only manages to disappoint Daehwi further more.

''I told you... I'd be with Seonho last night, dad.'' He explains, pouting.

''And I told you to call me, prepubescent, but you didn't so I got worried.'' 

Daehwi laughs at his terrible dad joke, and then he shrugs his shoulders, ''I'm sorry about that.''

‘’Is everything okay?’’ The old man asks, the smile on his face has faded completely from his face, and it makes Daehwi feel guilty to notice this – how his humor could affect someone else so easily, ‘’You’ve been so excited to move to Eunkyung’s house all week but right now you look… like you don’t want to do it anymore.’’

‘’You can still change your mind, Daehwi. Do you really want us to move in with her?’’

Daehwi frowns, his father sounds extremely concerned, but Eunkyung – his father’s girlfriend and packing are the least things Daehwi is worried about right now. He doesn’t even know what bothered him in the first place, he’s just being overdramatic, like always – he wishes his father realized he was part of the drama club for a reason.

‘’Yes, dad,’’ He mutters under his breath, ‘’I’m sorry, it’s just – I have a huge headache right now.’’ He knows, although he’s perfectly fine and nothing hurts in his body.

His father hums knowingly, eyes roaming around the living room to make sure everyone is doing what they’re supposed to do, and then he smiles.

‘’So you _were_ with Seonho last night,’’ He laughs, raising his eyebrows accusingly and Daehwi laughs as well, thankful his father had grown up in America instead of Korea, and how he was more open-minded than most of his friends’ parents, ‘’I’m pretty sure we have Advil somewhere around the kitchen, you drunkard.’’

Daehwi grins; he nods at his father and decides to change into more comfortable clothes before heading to the kitchen. The black-haired boy is glad to know that nothing other than his mattress is missing from his bedroom when he arrives, and freezes as he stares at his own reflection in the mirror in front of him. Daehwi thinks of closing his eyes for a second, but he decides against it, and instead, looks intently at himself; he looks at the stranger’s shirt: it was a simple cotton shirt, but it amazed the younger nonetheless. The black shirt was actually really big on him, he could see his collarbones and how it ended below his thighs, which, now that he thinks of it, are still wet and uncomfortable thanks to his own stupidity.

Daehwi scrunches his nose up, and kneels down to unzip one of the bags he had done already a week prior. He decides not being presentable today, Eunkyung has met him plenty of times before, anyways, so it doesn’t matter anymore; the boy picks some grey sweatpants, which he knows are warm and definitely not wet, and immediately gets rid of his skinny jeans to change into more comfortable clothes. Daehwi looks at himself in the mirror once again, and shrugs with his shoulders as he decides not to change his shirt, for no reason – making up excuses on his head about how he doesn’t have a lot of time to both pack the rest of his things _and_ change.

The black-haired sighs, he sits down on the floor of his now-empty-room and looks around. The pictures and paintings hanging on his walls had been removed by him a few days before, the closet had been emptied a week ago and his CDs were on his dad’s car already, but the stars on the ceiling stayed there, moving slightly as they ever did. The motion makes Daehwi feel almost nostalgic, he remembers the past 3 years he spent in this apartment and how it made him meet Yoo Seonho (it’s a long story – Seonho doesn’t even live close to him anymore) and he knows it’d be impossible not to miss it, like he misses his apartment back in Osaka and his house back in Los Angeles, but it’s not like it matters anymore, at least that’s what he likes to tell to himself; because sometimes he finds himself reminiscing about old times in Japan and his old friends, and his family reunions in America, and though it hurts – because it still hurts him – he hates the mere thought of going to America once again, or to a new country – he only hopes for better things from now on, hopeful that it will be the last time he’ll move to another place, another house, and that he’ll maybe finally have a place to call home.

(♡˙︶˙♡)

His father tells him to leave the apartment earlier. Daehwi had been complaining about being hungry and how slow his dad was at packing up his stuff, so his father tells him to leave the apartment earlier – he almost throws him out of their old apartment, mumbles something about Eunkyung being at work right now, but that her son was there to welcome him and maybe make him some sandwiches (this scares Daehwi, because Eunkyung’s son – Daehwi’s new stepbrother, is young, younger than him, so he can’t imagine him being by himself, scared as he waits for his mom to arrive while he watches a Disney channel movie, and he decides he will be the one making him sandwiches). Daehwi is glad his father had given him a spare key to their new apartment a few days before, because if not, he’d be locked out of his own apartment, and he was sure his young stepbrother wouldn’t open the door to a creepy dude claiming he was going to live with him from now on.

Daehwi sighs as he takes the stairs to get to the 5th floor of the building, where the apartment number 520 and his new stepbrother waited for him. The black-haired looks around in interest, from the tiled floors and the velvet carpets, to the beige-colored walls and the golden numbers on the doors; the building is on the more expensive side of Seoul, and Daehwi can now tell why. The black-haired boy turns at the end of the hall, still not having found his new apartment, and he counts the numbers in front of him.

516… 518… Daehwi blinks twice, in front of him the number 520 is displayed in big, fancy letters, but he can hear music from the inside of the apartment – he could guess it is because of his stepbrother, but he doubts Eunkyung would let such a young boy listen to Lil Uzi Vert. Daehwi shrugs off, thinking that maybe, because Eunkyung wasn’t home his stepbrother had decided to go on YouTube and do all the things his mother always told him not to, but then Daehwi hears laughter, the loud sound of something falling and a gasp; the boy hurries to open the door almost immediately, hands trembling against the key as he thinks of the worst scenario possible involving his new stepbrother.

Daehwi rushes through the door, but frowns as soon as his eyes meet the interior of what would be his new home.

Because in all honesty, the boy didn’t know what he was expecting – maybe burglary or just broken glass on Kang Eunkyung’s perfect carpet, but the last thing Daehwi expected to see in her apartment was a genuine mess: beer bottles displayed on the kitchen table like high school trophies, half-eaten pizza slices on the floor and teenagers smoking pot in the living room. Daehwi is about to ~~have a heart attack~~ call the police when he sees him.

And those eyes…

Daehwi shivers.

He could never forget those eyes.

Screaming seems like a good idea for the stranger’s question.

‘’What are you doing in my house?!’’

Suddenly, moving to America doesn’t seem like a bad idea anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unedited bc i hate myself
> 
> also, english is not my mother language so forgive my gramatical/syntactic mistakes plz (*μ_μ) i hope you enjoyed the first chapter, this is my first time writing about pd101 and i know 0 about some of these characters so please spare me lol
> 
> anyways thank you for reading!


	2. What To Do

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unedited, i literally just wrote this in the last 3 hours otl...

Daewhi’s loud gasp manages to gain everyone’s attention, but the stranger in front of him remains unfazed: a stern look in his face and furrowed eyebrows as he glares into Daehwi’s eyes. The younger boy doesn’t notice this, and instead, he finds himself getting caught up in the stranger’s words – widening his eyes as he repeats over and over again what the man had just said in his head: his house? _This one?!_ He frowns and looks around the place, scoffs when he notices the stranger’s crossed arms and his tilted head, which terribly remind him of what had happened a few hours ago, and he hates it – Daehwi thought (and hoped) that he’d never see this person ever again, but here he is: the same day he’d been kicked out by the older, in his supposedly new apartment and surrounded by people he definitely didn’t know and cigarette butts lying on the floor.

Someone turns off the music, and Daehwi doesn’t know whether to be relieved or worried about this – because now he has the attention of every single person in the room – the stranger included – and he doesn’t know what to do.  

Daehwi ends up deciding to look around the apartment again, now asking for help: with his eyebrows furrowed and a slight pout in his mouth, Daehwi hopes for someone to come and save him from the unknown man in front of him, but the younger boy doesn’t recognize any of the faces staring back at him in wonder – he doesn’t know _anyone at all_ ; and this fact manages to disappoint him greatly.

But what was he expecting, honestly?

Daehwi sighs, and stares back at the stranger helplessly.

The younger boy is about to open his mouth and finally say something when a boy with bleached hair and black eyeliner interrupts him by standing in front of him; blocking his sight and preventing the stranger from looking daggers at him.

The blond-haired guy smiles, he waves his hands eagerly at Daehwi as if they were old friends who were reuniting after years of not seeing each other.

‘’I imagined you behind a dumpster in Itaewon by now,’’ He says and giggles; and Daehwi frowns at his strange… sense of humor? He hopes he’s joking, because if he’s honest, he doesn’t quite remember what he did last night so –

‘’Lee Daehwi?’’ The younger boy raises his eyebrows when he hears his name out of the boy’s mouth and smiles slightly – he realizes that this is, in fact, Tequila Guy, which meant Daehwi at least knew someone in this house! He had been the one to give him and Seonho shots last night…

By the way – Daehwi tilts his head – now that he thinks of it, he still doesn’t know anything about Yoon Seonho’s whereabouts…

‘’Minki shut up.’’ The stranger behind him says, interrupting Daehwi’s thoughts, and both Tequila guy – _Minki_ , and Daehwi roll his eyes at the same time.

Minki turns around to face the stranger; this proves Daehwi that both guys know each other – this means there’s a huge possibility that the stranger was at the party last night as well. Daehwi frowns in confusion, staring at the older as he tries to remember anything from last night, had they really met at the party? And how did they meet? Had this stranger, who is currently glaring at him with a frown, actually talked to him and convinced him to go back at his place? Daehwi fails to remember anything; his frustration is quickly interrupted by a loud sigh.

‘’You shut up.’’ Minki says, and immediately leaves to bother someone else. This makes Daehwi frown, and the stranger laugh in amusement – Daehwi guesses that’s how Minki is normally, because it doesn’t confuse the stranger at all; he looks quite entertained, actually. So Daehwi just shrugs off with his shoulders, pouting as he sees the only person he knows in the room walk away from him.

Daehwi watches Minki’s small back in disappointment as he runs towards another person and clings to them, swinging back and forth like there is a music playing in the background.

The younger boy hears someone clear his throat loudly, so he looks up to find the stranger staring at him impatiently.

Daehwi raises his eyebrows in expectation.

‘’You haven’t answered my question yet.’’ He notes, eyeing Daehwi’s bag suspiciously before staring into his eyes once again, ‘’What are you doing in my house?’’

‘’Your house?’’ Daehwi curses in his mind when he finds himself repeating the stranger’s words – he really wants to explain himself, show him the key his father had given to him...  do something else than blinking twice and staring at the floor, but he’s still taken aback by the situation; the younger grabs his bag and takes a few steps back, unknown to why he feels so self-conscious in front of this stranger.

The stranger frowns and then lets out a small laugh, seemingly amused by the absurdity of the situation.

‘’Don’t answer my question with another question.’’ He mutters, and sighs when he realizes that Daehwi is not going to say anything.

‘’Yes, it’s my house,’’ He says, messing up with his hair in despair, ‘’Now you’ll answer my question?’’

Daehwi decides to look up from the floor, and tentatively stares into the stranger’s eyes.

‘’I…’’

‘’We brought chicken!’’ Daehwi’s sentence is interrupted by someone’s voice – his dad’s – hell, Daehwi would be able to recognize that voice anywhere – the black-haired boy turns around almost immediately, only to find his father right in front of him, next to Eunkyung, who gasps loudly when she sees what’s going on inside of her apartment.

‘’It’s not what it seems I swear!’’ Daehwi exclaims loudly; scared to disappoint his father’s girlfriend – what if she broke up with him because of the stupid, irresponsible kid he had? He didn’t know how to take care of himself, let alone his own house; and thanks to this a complete stranger had managed to broke into it and throw a party.

Daehwi realizes he doesn’t even know where his new stepbrother is, so he looks around the room once again, now desperate – trying to find a small person amongst a crowd of older people.

‘’What did you do to my brother?!’’ The boy asks the stranger, who scrunches up his face in indignation.

The stranger is not able to answer Daehwi, although his mouth is already open and his eyes once again glaring daggers at him.

‘’Kang Dongho,’’ Eunkyung’s calm voice can be heard amongst the chaos; it surprises Daehwi how it manages to scare him – because all he’d ever seen of Kang Eunkyung was rainbows and butterflies – not that it makes sense or matters right now, because what Daehwi is currently thinking is that, if this Kang Dongho person is Eunkyung’s son, guessing by his last name, there’s no way he’d heard her – wherever he was, considering she’d talked too quietly.

‘’To the kitchen. Now.’’ She says, eyes avoiding everyone’s curious stares and hands tight on a bucket of fried chicken as she walks across the living room and slams the kitchen door in anger.

Daewhi’s father seems puzzled, but he follows Eunkyung immediately after indicating Daehwi with his hands to do so as well; Daehwi furrows his eyebrows, frustrated by the fact things at his new home had started off so badly, and looks around in the hopes of finding little Dongho – but he’s not able to find any adorable, younger boys amongst the sea of people around him, so he sighs, glares at the stranger next to him for the last time and rolls his eyes.

The stranger sighs as well, and points to Daehwi the way to the kitchen, before starting to walk right behind him. Daehwi scrunches up his face, looks back at the older twice to make sure he isn’t hallucinating.

It takes them seconds to arrive to the kitchen, and Daehwi notices how the stranger immediately plops into a chair when they get there. Daehwi is more cautious, he takes a glance at Eunkyung, who’s fuming in silence, and decides to remain in his feet, elbows resting in the kitchen table as he waits impatiently for someone to speak.

Eunkyung has her arms against her chest, and it awfully reminds Daehwi of the stranger next to him – but he doesn’t think anything of it, and instead pouts, head low in shame as Eunkyung lets out a sigh and shakes her head in disappointment; it seems like she’s looking for the words to express how much Daehwi had let her down.

 ‘’This was a very important day for me and you knew it, but instead of helping me out you decided to throw a party?’’ She starts speaking, walking back and forth around the kitchen as speaks, ‘’And not only that but you also risked your new stepbrother’s safety by doing this! I don’t know if you can tell but he’s still very young!’’ Eunkyung shakes her head again, ‘’I can’t believe I even trusted you on this.’’

‘’I’m so sorry,’’ Daehwi apologizes, eyes almost tearing up as he pleads to his father’s girlfriend to forgive him, ‘’But when I arrived things were this way already and… I don’t even know where your son is! But I’ll find him right away – I… I’m so sorry!’’ He bows his head, eyes staring into his shoes for a few seconds before looking again at Eunkyung.

Eunkyung raises her eyebrows at him in confusion, and then she stares at his father and smiles faintly, ‘’Daehwi…’’

‘’This is my son, Kang Dongho,’’ The woman points at the stranger sitting next to Daehwi, who’s looking at him like he had grown two heads.

‘’What? No,’’ Daehwi huffs, refusing to turn his head to see who Eunkyung is pointing at – because it isn’t possible, how come… out of all the people in Seoul, Daehwi had gotten stuck with… with him? The black-haired boy frowns, it just doesn’t make sense, ‘’Your son is younger than me. He’s tiny, adorable! And he’s definitely not scar–

The younger shuts up when Eunkyung glares at his father accusingly, ‘’You didn’t tell Daehwi my son was older than him?’’

‘’I didn’t tell you Dongho is older than you?’’ His father asks; eyebrows furrowed as he looks at him.

Daehwi hides his face with his hands in embarrassment, and shakes his head slowly.

Eunkyung’s high-pitched laugh breaks the uncomfortable silence, followed by his father’s small smile and the stranger’s – now Dongho, now his _stepbrother_ – blank face.

‘’Ha… ha… so funny…’’ He mutters under his breath, ‘’Now that we’ve cleared things out, can I go?’’

Eunkyung stops laughing almost immediately, ‘’I’m not done with you yet, mister.’’ She points a finger at him accusingly, ‘’What’s wrong with you, Dongho? I clearly remember telling you they were arriving today! D-do you do this every time I leave for work?!’’ She wonders, eyes widening with every new question she asks.

‘’And what’s with the smell?! And… and – what is this?’’ Eunkyung grabs a slice of pizza from the floor; face scrunched up as she opens the trashcan with her hands and throws it away.

‘’I… ordered pizza?’’

‘’Perfect.’’ She says, clapping her hands together, ‘’Since you ate already, we’ll share the chicken between the three of us.’’

‘’But you have to eat chicken when you eat pizza!’’ Dongho exclaims, and Daehwi bites his lips to prevent a smile from forming in his face, eyeing the older with curiosity as he discovers another side of the boy; he is pretty immature, Daehwi decides, ‘’Mom, please!’’

Eunkyung only glares at him and sighs.

‘’The party is over, Dongho.’’ She says, walking towards the door besides Daehwi’s father, who hasn’t said anything in the past 15 minutes.

Daehwi stands up instantly, scared to be left alone with Kang Dongho for a single second, and he follows his father, eyes on Dongho as the older sighs, looking defeated.

Almost everyone is gone when they arrive to the living room, only Tequila Boy – Minki, and the boy he had been previously dancing with were left, next to some girls who were trying their best to clean the mess they made, but failing in the process. The girls immediately stop picking up beer bottles and cigarette butts when they see Eunkyung, and hurry to stand next to Minki and the other boy in a line, as if they were waiting to be scolded like Dongho had been.

‘’We’re so sorry, Miss Kang,’’ Minki bows, seemingly ashamed, ‘’We didn’t know your boyfriend was arriving today, so we decided to make a party.’’

One of the girls nods frantically, ‘’But it’s not going to happen again!’’ She adds to Minki’s words, and then looks around for help.

The rest of the group only nods as well, trying to avoid Eunkyung’s eyes.

‘’It’s okay, guys,’’ She mutters, ‘’Dongho should’ve known better.’’

‘’Thank you for… cleaning, Jinah,’’ Eunkyung says, smiling at the girl who had spoken earlier, ‘’And for apologizing, but if you don’t mind, I want to spend some time with my family now.’’

My family.

Daehwi smiles at the words.

‘’Y-yes, Miss Kang, thank you so much! See you!’’

‘’Bye, Dongho!’’

‘’Thank you!’’

‘’God bless you!’’

‘’Minki honestly, shut up.’’

Daehwi laughs softly, but stops when he sees Dongho by the door: he’s shrugging with his shoulders, smiling sheepishly at his friends as they say goodbye to him.

Eunkyung is smiling too, but as soon as Dongho’s friends are out of the apartment she sighs and runs a hand through her long hair. Daehwi can tell her plans hadn’t gone as planned either, but it warms his heart to see her shoulders immediately relaxing once his father surrounds them with one of his arms. The scene is intimate, he knows but he can’t take his eyes off of them in fascination; it’s been a while since his father had been this happy.

‘’I’ll… help clean the house,’’ Daehwi blurts out, startling the couple, who share looks and then smile, ‘’You guys should rest, it’s been a long day.’’

‘Where’s… uh, you know, the broom?’’

‘’The broom?’’ Eunkyung asks, and then she eyes Dongho, who’s silently walking towards the entrance door, ‘’Don’t worry, Dongho will help you find it.’’

Dongho sighs, defeated, and turns to face Daehwi; the older gives him a small smile that manages to startles Daehwi; they are stepbrothers; stepbrothers! But how is Daehwi supposed to live with Dongho knowing what happened last night…?! And having him smiling like this at him… the black-haired blushes, staring at the floor to then frown – he hopes Dongho knows it was only a one-time thing!

‘’You’re such a good kid, Daehwi,’’ Eunkyung says, she yawns, covering her mouth in the process, and then she rests her head in his father’s shoulder, Daehwi once again smiles at the adorable sight.

‘’If you knew…’’ Dongho mumbles, but it’s loud enough for Eunkyung and Daehwi’s father to hear – they stare dumbfounded at the older. Dongho smiles innocently at them; eyes crinkling up and gums showing; Daehwi, on the other hand, is dying on the inside.

‘’Did you… know each other already?’’

‘’No.’’

‘’Yes.’’

Daehwi and Dongho stare at each other after having answered the question at the same time; and Dongho is smirking at the younger: almost challenging him with his stare and a raised eyebrow, but Daehwi decides it’s not important – the younger decides Kang Dongho is not important – and that what’s important right now is that his father and Eunkyung don’t start thinking the worst of him only because he made a terrible mistake last night.

‘’We’ve seen each other at parties.’’ Daehwi mumbles.

Dongho nods, eyes never leaving Daehwi, ‘’He’s Minhyun’s junior, too.’’

The younger turns around immediately to stare at Dongho; how does he know about Minhyun? Had Daehwi said something about him last night? Do they actually know each other? Has he said anything to Minhyun about him? Does Minhyun know about…?

‘’Oh, Minhyun!”’ Eunkyung exclaims, soft smile on her face as she remembers the boy, ‘’I’m glad you have friends in common.’’

Dongho smirks again, ‘’Me too, mom.’’

The older is still staring down at Daehwi – who’s practically having a breakdown in front of his father. Daehwi clears his throat, trying to change the topic of the conversation, and manages to put a smile in his face.

‘’Why don’t you guys go get some rest? C’mon, leave it to me.’’ He says, ushering Eunkyung to the halls when she picks up an empty bottle of beer from the floor, ‘’It’s okay.’’

Eunkyung smiles, handing Daehwi the beer bottle reluctantly, and then she points at Dongho with her index finger.

‘’Kang Dongho don’t you dare to leave Daehwi on his own – it’s your mess after all!’’

Daehwi notices Dongho rolling his eyes, but he doesn’t say anything about it – he doesn’t say anything from then on, actually, and instead, he focuses on cleaning his new house. He mutters a song he doesn’t know – the one from the alarm he’d heard a few hours ago, and eyes Dongho weirdly when the older starts singing the same song under his breath.

Daehwi shuts up when he remembers why the song was stuck in his head to begin with, and blushes as he is reminded of their encounter in the morning.

The hours pass quickly, Daehwi finds out pizza stains are not that easy to remove from expensive carpets, but also that Dongho and his friends had a terrible problem of alcoholism – Daehwi scrunches up his face as he picks the last bottle of beer from the floor, and sighs when it’s thrown into the trashcan. He’s finally finished his job… but Dongho hasn’t; eyes busy on the floor he had been moping for the last half an hour or so – Daehwi realizes the older sucks at cleaning; he looks awkward holding the mop, hands in a wrong position as he tries to get rid of a huge grease stain on the floor.

Daehwi wonders if he should lend him a hand, but then he remembers picking up the trash from the floor and sweeping; cleaning the carpet and the sofas and washing the dishes… so no; the younger shrugs off with his shoulders, sitting on a stool when he decides Dongho will be fine on his own. He takes his time to stare at Dongho instead, at his scrunched up face and his furrowed eyebrows and how his shirt showed a tattoo Daehwi hadn’t seen yet every time he leaned forward.

The younger tilts his head and squints his eyes in order to see well: the tattoo is pretty big and in the right side of his chest; it has words that Daehwi isn’t able to read from afar, but he can see the shape of a star, and… another tattoo in the left side of his chest.

Daehwi widens his eyes in surprise: he might feel a little bit embarrassed to admit this out loud but – he had actually hit _that_.

Or that had hit him?

Daehwi shrugs off; he shakes his arms in discomfort, as if doing so would get rid of his curiosity, thoughts and questions.

The boy can hear the door of his father’s and Eunkyung’s new room swing open, and when they go out they look 10 times better than they did before: refreshed, half asleep but terribly happy, and it makes Daehwi happy as well.

‘’I’m hungry!’’ Eunkyung exclaims in an adorable way, to which his father smiles warmly.

‘’Great job guys,’’ His father says, ‘’Why don’t you take a break to eat dinner?’’

Daehwi smiles, ‘’I’m done, actually.’’

‘’Let’s eat, then.’’

‘’C’mon, Dongho.’’ His father adds – he sounds a little awkward, and Daehwi giggles at the realization of where his awkwardness had come from. Dongho eyes him weirdly, before letting the mop drop into the floor without a second thought and smiles widely.

‘’Finally!’’ He exclaims, hurrying to the kitchen for the chicken,’’Mom you brought spicy chicken, right?!’’

Eunkyung rolls her eyes and smiles, ‘’Yes, Dongho, of course.’’

‘’Yes!’’

Daehwi exchanges looks with his father, and then they share a smile together.

(♡˙︶˙♡)

‘’… So Sooyoung told me I could leave earlier,’’ Eunkyung has been talking for a good half an hour now, but it seems like no one is listening: eyes too busy on the chicken as they eat, ‘’I wanted to surprise you guys. But you surprised me instead.’’

Dongho laughs loudly, and it catches Daehwi off guard; because it’s loud and high-pitched, and totally the contrary of what Daehwi expected Dongho’s laugh to sound like.

‘’But what about you guys, how was your day?’’

Dongho opens his mouth to speak, but Eunkyung interrupts him; index finger on the air as she talks again.

‘’I already know you skipped your classes today, Kang Dongho,’’ She says, eyes closed as if trying to maintain her patience, ‘’I don’t need a reminder.’’

Dongho giggles, shrugging his shoulders off and digging in for another piece of chicken.

Seeing Dongho smiling and whining – and giggling, for God’s sake! – Makes Daehwi wonder about the boy’s actual age; he was definitely older than him, but for how much? Eunkyung’s statement about Dongho skipping classes lets him know he’s still a student, probably from university…

‘’How was your day, Daehwi?’’ Eunkyung’s soft voice interrupt Daehwi’s thoughts: the younger flinches at the sound, and then gives her a small smile; embarrassed.

‘’Uh… it was okay.’’ He mumbles, playing with the food in his plate as he tries to think of other things to say to stop sounding so awkward; but in honesty, what was he supposed to say? The truth? He frowns – how was he supposed to tell Eunkyung he’d had one of the strangest days in his whole life?

‘’Does your head still hurt?’’ His father asks, concerned now as he’s remembered their conversation back in their old apartment.

Daehwi blinks twice, and glares at Dongho when the boy starts laughing under his breath.

Eunkyung and his father exchange looks, but Daehwi ignores it.

‘’I’m better,’’ He answers, eyes glaring daggers at Dongho, ‘’I just need to rest, but thanks dad.’’

His father nods, but then stops and gives him an apologetic smile, Daehwi frowns… what now?

‘’That reminds me, Daehwi… Eunkyung wanted to surprise you with your own bedroom but it’s still being constructed…’’

‘’You don’t mind sharing a room with your stepbrother for now, do you?’’ Eunkyung interrupts; she looks guilty as well – and how is Daehwi supposed to tell her anything other than what she wants when she’s looking at him like this?

 _Stepbrother_ , Daehwi hates that word; he gives Dongho a quick glance, but regrets it when he realizes Dongho is staring at him as well; the younger boy’s eyes avert from him, and instead look back at Eunkyung, who’s smiling.

‘’Of course… not.’’

Eunkyung nods, clapping her hands together excitedly.

‘’You better have cleaned up a little bit, Kang Dongho.’’ Her whole face changes when she says this, and Dongho starts laughing again.

The older stand ups and then bows slightly.

‘’I’m… going to excuse myself, thanks for the dinner,’’ He says, smiling sheepishly at Eunkyung and Daehwi’s father, he then turns to face Daehwi, who’s dumbfounded.

‘’By the way,’’ Dongho says, an innocent smile playing in his lips as he talks, ‘’Nice shirt, Daehwi,’’

Daehwi looks down as he realizes what he’s been wearing all this time – and turns into a blushing mess as soon as Dongho turns around to leave the kitchen.

A few more minutes pass where Daehwi is unable to look at his father or Eunkyung in the eye; the younger boy is trying his best to finish the last piece of chicken so that he’s not forced to speak, but it’s not like he has to try too hard: Eunkyung and his father seem to have forgotten Daehwi is there at all; acting like a couple of teenagers as they hold hands and whisper into each other’s ears.

It’s when Daewhi’s father steals a kiss from Eunkyung that the younger realizes it’s time to leave; he doesn’t say anything but bows instead, grabs his plate from the table and leaves it in the kitchen sink – making a quick note in his head to wash it as soon as he wakes up tomorrow morning.

Daehwi makes no sound when exiting the kitchen, neither as he starts walking towards the hall where the bedrooms where situated. The black-haired boy sticks his head in one of the rooms: the one he guesses and will be his’, considering that there’s no door on it and a lot of repairs have to be done in order to be ready.

Daehwi then takes a glance at the door Eunkyung and his father had gone out from, and gulps down when he finally finds himself in front of the last remaining door; he lets out a breath, and gently turns the handle of the bedroom door.

The lights are off, and Dongho is fast asleep in the lower bed of his (yes, Daehwi is not seeing wrong) bed bunk. This makes Daehwi smile in surprise, but his smile slowly fades away as he realizes he’s going to have to climb up in order to get in his bed.

Daehwi sighs, eyes on Dongho as the older turns around in his sleep, and climbs the small stairs of the bunk bed slowly and quietly, afraid to wake the older up with his movements.

The younger lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding when he’s finally in his bed: he immediately lies down; eyes tight shut and heart beating faster than when he first entered the bedroom.

Daehwi falls asleep to the sound of his heartbeat and Dongho’s breathing right beneath him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so... i just found out that daehwi's father passed away when he was very young and now i feel very inappropiate and guilty for writing about him even if it's just a story... idk, what do you guys think? 
> 
> tysm for your kudos and comments they mean a lot to me <3

**Author's Note:**

> unedited bc i hate myself
> 
> also, english is not my mother language so forgive my gramatical/syntactic mistakes plz (*μ_μ) i hope you enjoyed the first chapter, this is my first time writing about pd101 and i know 0 about some of these characters so please spare me lol 
> 
> anyways thank you for reading!


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